The invention relates generally to plasma etching of materials. In particular, the invention relates to etching dielectric layers in semiconductor integrated circuits.
The continuing commercialization of ever more complex semiconductor integrated circuits has required further developments in the fabrication processes used in making them. One of the most demanding areas involves the etching of holes into dielectric layers. The problems arise from the need to etch very narrow but deep holes into the dielectric materials. Although the most common dielectrics are silicon dioxide and related silicate materials used as inter-level dielectric layers to electrically isolate multiple layers of wiring from each other, dielectrics are commonly used for other purposes.
One such other application is the use of undoped spin-on glass (USG) as a hard mask in etching a very deep trench into polysilicon for the formation of trench capacitors for dynamic random addressable memory (DRAM). As illustrated in the sectioned isometric view of FIG. 1, a substrate includes a relatively thick layer 10 of polysilicon. A trench capacitor is to be formed in the polysilicon layer 10 using the polysilicon as one electrode. A thin stop layer 12 of silicon nitride overlies the polysilicon layer 10, and a hard mask layer 14 of undoped spin-on glass (USG) overlies the stop layer 12. USG is a silicate glass that is spun onto the wafer and dried, just as is spin-on glass (SOG) and in particular borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG), commonly used as an inter-level dielectric. However, BPSG is heavily doped while USG is undoped silicate glass. A photoresist layer 16 is spun onto the top of the USG layer 14, hardened, and photographically patterned to have a mask aperture 18 in the lateral form of the desired trench.
This structure is then subjected to a multi-step etching process that, as illustrated in the partially sectioned isometric view of FIG. 2, first etches through the USG layer 14 and the nitride stop layer 12 and then into the polysilicon layer 10 to produce a deep narrow trench 20 in the polysilicon layer 10. The trench may be 30 xcexcm deep. Trench widths are decreasing to about 0.3 xcexcm or less. Because of its extreme depth relative to the photoresist thickness, the USG layer 14 is used as a hard mask to mask the polysilicon etching after the photoresist has been consumed. The polysilicon etch is chosen to be selective to USG. A USG thickness of 1.2 xcexcm is typical for a trench hard mask, a thickness approximately equal to typical inter-level dielectric thicknesses so that the etching processes developed here for the trench hard mask are applicable to via holes through a inter-level dielectric as well as to other applications. The nitride layer 12 is used both as an etch stop for the oxide etching and as an anti-reflective coating in optically imaging the narrow trench into the photoresist layer 16. The etching process thus requires three separate etching substeps, usually using three different etching gases in one plasma etching chamber: a mask open step for etching the trench shape into the USG oxide layer 14; a nitride open for removing the nitride stop layer 12 at the bottom of the oxide trench; and the polysilicon etch.
After the trench 20 has been formed in the polysilicon 10, a thin conformal dielectric layer is deposited over the sides and bottom of the trench, and then a metal is filled into the remaining volume of the trench. A large-area trench capacitor is formed across the thin dielectric layer separating the polysilicon and the metal in the trench, the two electrodes of the capacitor.
This invention is primarily directed to etching of an oxide, which in the specifically described embodiment is the mask open step, which has strong similarities to etching via and contact holes through inter-level oxides for inter-level wiring. The etch must be relatively deep and create a narrow, vertical hole while stopping on a non-oxide layer. Such oxide etching is typically performed in a plasma etch reactor using a fluorocarbon etching gas and an argon diluent with strong substrate biasing to accelerate argon ions to the wafer in a process referred to as reactive ion etching (RIE). The fluorocarbon deposits a polymer on the oxide sidewalls and bottom of the developing oxide hole. The energetic argon ions activate a reaction at the hole bottom that differentiates underlying oxide and non-oxide. The effect is that the bottom oxide is etched, but the non-oxide is not. Fluorocarbon-based oxide etching can achieve very high selectivity to underlying nitride.
The conventional fluorine-based oxide etching, however, presents increasing problems as the hole widths are being further reduced. Excessive polymerization in the oxide hole being etched will cause the polymer to bridge the hole and to prevent any further etching, an effect called etch stop. Obviously, etch stop must be avoided.
Another requirement is that during the oxide etching some photoresist must remain. Otherwise, the top of the USG layer will also be etched. Because of the geometry, exposed corners of the photoresist are most prone to etching, resulting in the formation of facets at the lip of the photoresist aperture. If the photoresist facets reach the underlying oxide, the mask aperture starts to widen, and the critical dimension (CD) is lost. The photoresist thickness cannot be freely increased because a thicker photoresist degrades the photographic resolution in patterning the photoresist. As a result, high photoresist selectivity, particularly at the facets, is also required during the oxide etch.
Yet another problem arising in oxide etching of narrow features is that striations are often observed to occur on the oxide sidewalls. The striations are vertically extending irregularities that result in a rough sidewall. Since the oxide layer is being used as a hard mask in the polysilicon etching, such irregularities are transferred to the underlying polysilicon. Striations in the polysilicon make it difficult to fill metal into the trench and also introduce reliability and performance problems with the irregularly shaped capacitors. It is now generally believed that the oxide striations somehow originate in the sidewalls of the photographically patterned hole in the photoresist and propagate downwardly into the oxide sidewalls.
For these reasons, it is desirable to develop an oxide etching process that is selective to photoresist, does not produce etch stop, and reduces the occurrence of striations.
There has been much recent development in the use of more complex fluorocarbons in etching high aspect-ratio holes in oxide. Octafluorocyclobutane (C4F8) has been favored for several years in advanced applications, but its process window between etch stop and unacceptably low selectivity is now considered to be too narrow. Wang et al. have suggested several 3-carbon fluorocarbons in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/259,536, flied Mar. 1, 1999, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,451. Hung et al. have demonstrated superior performance with hexafluorobutadiene (C4F6) in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/440,810, filed Nov. 15, 1999, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,602,434. Others have promoted the use of octafluoropentadiene (C5F8). At least the Wang and Hung work have further emphasized a large fraction of argon or xenon diluent. The better ones of these fluorocarbons have been characterized as being free of hydrogen and having a ratio of fluorine to carbon atoms (F/C) of less than 2.
However, it is not clear that using only the heavier hydrogen-free fluorocarbons will be sufficient for even more advanced applications. Etch stop continues to be problem if the chemistry is too polymerizing. Photoresist selectivity is becoming an increasingly difficult problem as its thickness decreases with decreasing feature sizes. The sensitivity to striations with less conventional fluorocarbons has not been well explored. It is now generally accepted that the addition of oxygen, particularly in the form of carbon monoxide (CO), will reduce etch stop without too great a decrease in selectivity. Fluorocarbons with high F/C ratios are strong etchers but provide poor selectivity. The use of polymerizing hydrofluoromethanes, particularly difluoromethane (CH2F2), will aid selectivity but at the risk of etch stop.
Heretofore, finding an oxide etch recipe satisfying the various requirements over a reasonable process window entailed a hit or miss methodology of trying many combinations of gases with many ratios of their components. It is greatly desired that the methodology be systematized to at least reduce the number of possibilities.
An oxide etching process in which a plasma of an etching gas is applied to the oxide layer through a photoresist mask to etch a hole into the oxide. The etching gas contains active components and a diluent gas such as argon. The active components include a hydrogen-free fluorocarbon having an F/C ratio of less than 2, preferably C4F6 or C5F8, and a hydrofluorocarbon or hydrogen-free fluorocarbon with an F/C ratio greater than 2. Carbon tetrafluoride (CF4) provides improved control. The active components optionally include CO or O2. The relative flows of the active components are chosen such that the ratio (Fxe2x80x94H)/(Cxe2x80x94O) is between 1.5 and 2, where F, H, C, and O are the total atomic concentrations of fluorine, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen atoms respectively in the etching gas.